Every year we all enter Week 1 with the goal of becoming the next TBFL Champions…but that is not the only contest we have running. If you find yourself not in the running for a Playoff spot…and not in the running for any Team-of-the-Week bonuses…there are still other ways to stay involved with your other TBFL owners:
First up – the TBFL Survivor Series. This is our classic Survivor Pool contest where you pick 1 team each week to Win their NFL game…If they lose – you are out for the year. If they win…you move on and continue into the next week to pick another winner…never able to re-use a team you had used in a previous week. In 2012 it was over early (Week 3), and in 2013 Husslers took the title in Week 6 and kept the streak alive for three more weeks before succumbing in Week 10. In previous years the table has been run for the entire season and some…matchsticks…were split among the finalists. Matchsticks…are never a requirement to play…but what you and your fellow owners agree to play for is between you…
The important thing to remember is that an early week game (Like the NFL Kickoff game this Thursday) shuts off the ability to pick for the week and can cause you to be eliminated before things even get started. So make sure you get this pick in for Week 1 to stay alive in the contest. Go do it now…I’ll wait here for you…
Next up is our NFL Confidence Pool picks. This is your standard Office Pool style contest where every week you just pick the winner of every NFL game played. Instead of a Monday Night game tie breaker score though…you apply a number showing how confident you are in each pick running from the #of games played that week down to 1 (So a week with no byes…like Week 1…would be ranked 16, 15, 14,…down to 1). You earn the number of assigned points for each game guessed correctly as your weekly score (So 16 is the most confident…1 is the least confident) and try to have the highest score for the season. Again if a group of owners decide to compete in this contest for some agreed upon number of…matchsticks…more power to them. The system again is picky about early week games…so make sure you get them in early and don’t forfeit a week of points…Go do it now…again…I’ll wait here…
Why should the NFL have all of the fun? If picking the winner of every NFL game is not challenging enough for you we also have the TBFL Confidence Pool picks. The rules are the same as the NFL Confidence Pool only there are always 6 TBFL games being played each week that you will pick a winner for and rate with a confidence number of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1. You are awarded the assigned number of points for each correct TBFL winner selected. While the points are tracked each week and for the season…the bigger fun is seeing just how the other owners really rate your team and your chances against the rest of the league. Bubba Army ended in a TIE (surprise!) with Runs N Throses at the top of the TBFL predicition heap in 2013. The system again likes to punish players who wait on early week games so go make your picks now…I’ll wait here…again…
This is the easiest contest we have to enter…The Chump Survivor Contest. To enter this one every week…all you have to do is…Enter Your TBFL Lineup! Every week…whichever team has the lowest TBFL score for the week is acknowledged as our Chump of the Week in my Statistically Speaking articles. We give everyone 1 Week to figure out their rosters, then beginning with Week 2…the lowest scoring team among the Survivors is eliminated from the contest. That means we will be down to 11 teams after Week 2, 10 teams after Week 3, etc. till there are only 2 left in Week 12….And there can be only one…
Hurricanes has managed to avoid elimination in both years that we have run this contest…and is now looking for a 3-Peat…
Which brings us to our biggest and most prestigious contest of all…The Chris Thomas 5 Star Pick 3 Handicapping Contest (or CT5SP3HC for short…). The full details of this contest are found HERE.
I opened this contest up to league members for the first time in the 2011 Season and publicly documented our picks on the TBFL Blog Site. (Well…all but the actual 2012 Year End Results post which I slacked on….but will be up soon with some analysis….) While 2011 was not a banner year for our degenerates…2012 was an incredible bounce back ending 234-141-9…Good enough for a 62.11% win rate against the spread and $5,460 to the positive in our virtual piggy bank. Miller and Burgess actually ended the season with win rates over 70%!
So for 2013 I am again offering the opportunity for anyone else who wants to play to jump in…but it is a season long commitment where you start 5,100 ‘units’ in the hole (+the vig) and see if you can end up in the black after 17 Weeks (No not real $$, but you are welcome to take your selections to your local STIB)…So don’t tell me you want in if you are not going to make the picks on time each week…I process this one by hand…
Basically visit the Vegas Insider website HERE and pick three games either against the spread, or against the totals each week. You can’t use the opening or consensus lines, but any actual line from an actual sports book listed there. We have primarily locked selections to NFL games only…but Hunter was a big whiner about it…and Chris DID allow NCAA games when he ran the contest – so NCAA lines are allowed if you must.
So last chance to jump in…shoot me an email or a text today with your picks for Week 1 if you are in.
And as Chris ended every show:
GOD BLESS AMERICA